


And The Underground Went Empty

by spazhime



Category: Undertale (Video Game), echo!tale(AU)
Genre: Echotale, F/M, Gaster!Sans - Freeform, g!sans - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 05:26:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29994555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spazhime/pseuds/spazhime
Summary: G had been alone for years. Frisk had stopped falling after realizing there was no way to break the barrier without flowey. You stumble upon the underground, but what can you do to help?
Relationships: G!Sans/Reader, Sans (Undertale)/Reader, W. D. Gaster/Reader
Comments: 3
Kudos: 22





	And The Underground Went Empty

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my new fic! I noticed that G only ever showed up in reverse harem fics, and honestly, i just wanted him to get his own spotlight. With so little known about echotale, i figured i would take matters into my own hands and get a fic going! Get ready for a wild ride, lots of my own headcannons, and a very confused reader!  
> Side note, I am still working on ANLOL, and will be doing the Blue/Laura spinoff fic when that is complete.

The underground is empty. Well, almost empty. Even though the ‘angel’ showed up, one day every monster in the underground simply just disappeared. Sat at a barstool in an abandoned bar, a lone skeleton is drinking his sorrow away. His skull is rounded at the top, with a semi elongated jaw bone. Flexible bone covered his teeth, almost like lips. He hadn’t had his signature grin in a long while, his ‘default’ face now changed to a small frown. Two cracks adorned his face, one on the right side starting at his eye socket and up into his skull, the other on the left side, also starting on the socket, but going down to his jaw bone. A single yellow eyelight shone in the latter socket.   
  
He raises his right hand to lift the beer to his mouth, his palm has a hole straight through it. The same is true for his left hand as well. He wears a yellow turtleneck, with a leather jacket on top. The leather is black, with faux fur lining the hood, and on each arm is a yellow circle surrounding a canine-like skull. Black basketball shorts with a chain hanging off the right side are worn on his legs, along with matching tennis shoes.    
  
Were someone to ask his name, he would tell them to call him ‘G’. Neither of his former names sounded right to him anymore, so he uses the singular letter instead.    
  
G runs his hands down the front of his skull after taking a long swig of beer. He no longer cares about escaping the underground, he no longer cares about anything at all. No, that’s a lie. He still cares for all the missing monsters and their fate. He tells himself he’s given up, but due to his state of being, he is incapable of ‘falling down’. And so, he lives a lonely existence of being drunk, attempting to find the lab so he can figure out what happened to everyone. The glitched out state of the underground doesn’t help with finding the lab, he’s lucky Grillby’s hasn’t been affected yet. The glitch surpasses even the saves and loads, once it happened even when Frisk reset, the monsters never came back. Several resets in a row later, Frisk had stopped falling down into the mountain. Hell, G would have too. Frisk had once told G that without Flowey, breaking the barrier was impossible. If he could just find the lab, he could figure out what happened with the space/time continuum and maybe bring the rest of the monsters back.    
  
\---------------------------------

  
“Trixie, where’d you go girl?”    
You call out to your dog. She’s been your hiking buddy since you were a teen, helping you scope out the wildlife to take pictures of. As a professional wildlife photographer, hiking was the best way to get natural pictures without disturbing nature. You’re a spry 26 year old, and have been travelling and taking photos for National Geographic for about 3 years. Trixie is a rough Collie, almost 11 years old. Smartest dog you’ve ever come across, though you may be biased. Hearing a bark off in the distance, you begin to trek after where the sound came from.   
  
You’re wondering if she found another log with a salamander under it, she knows not to eat the wildlife and to just alert you. She’s incredibly well trained, if you do say so yourself. However, when you approach her she seems to be barking at nothing.    
  
“Hey old girl, what’d you find?”    
  
She tilts her head at you and whines, then looks back to whatever it is she was barking at. All you see is a patch of grass with some vines growing next to it. You inspect a few of the rocks, seeing if there are any small tunnels leading underneath them, or other signs of wildlife. Nothing. Heaving a sigh, you pat her on the head.    
  
“Losing your touch, eh? No matter, there’s a whole forest and mountain to explore.” You stand up and stretch, walking forwards over the grass patch she led you to. She whines a bit as you start moving, then full on barks right at you. “What has gotten into….”    
  
Your stomach lurches, as you step on the patch of grass it gives way and you’re falling. ‘Oh’ you think, as you plummet seemingly to your doom. ‘That's what she was barking at’.    
  
___________   
  
You’re not sure when you passed out. Was it when you were falling, or after you hit your head? Either way, you have a raging headache and your leg is on fire with pain. Letting out a groan, you rub your head. A faint barking and whining is coming from above you. You glance up, the rockface all around you is sheer and unclimbable.    
  
“I’m okay! I’m gonna find a way out!”    
  
Trixie whines in reply. Gingerly, you stand up. Your leg isn’t broken, but it is badly bruised. It hurts like hell to walk. Seems like your camera made it through the fall though, so that’s good. Looking down, you realize you’ve landed perfectly on a patch of flowers somehow. Huh. How odd. You take in your surroundings. It's dark in here, obviously, being a cave and all. Dark green grass surrounds you, and you see some ancient looking buildings. An ancient looking doorway, with an odd crest stands off to your right, and you figure that’s the best place to start. If there’s ruins, there has to be an exit, right?    
  
Going through the door, you find, surprise surprise, more ruins. And.. buttons? Huh. There is a blocked door in front of you, with several smooth stones next to it. And a sign, that states   
  
“Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones. Both not walk the middle road.” Tilting your head, you figure it's a riddle of some sort. Possibly to do with the stones. Not walk the middle road, so maybe..    
  
You step forward, and press your foot on the first left stone. You hear a gentle click. Deciding you may be right, you step on each of the stones on the sides, but leave the ones in the middle. After the last stone is pushed, a loud click sounds, and the door opens. O-kay then, moving forward.    
  
Several other puzzles are in your way, including one that required you to find an extra rock to place on one of three buttons that needed to be weighed down. Whoever the people that used to live here were, they really liked their puzzles.   
  
Several hours of puzzles later, you find yourself in front of a cozy looking home, with a tree that seems to be constantly losing its red leaves. This… doesn’t look as ancient as the ruins behind you. How interesting. Just in case someone is still living here, you knock on the door.    
  
“Hello??”    
  
No reply. You shrug, and push the door open. It’s a quaint house, very welcoming. You didn’t want to intrude, however this was the only way forward. There’s a staircase in front of you, and a hallway to your right. You head left, hoping to find the back door. You enter a livingroom with a nice soft chair, a fireplace, and a book shelf in the corner. You move onward, and get to a kitchen, but no back door. A glance in the sink shows white fur, whoever lived here must have had a dog or cat.    
  
Heading back, you make your way to the staircase. Down you go, into a really creepy purple hallway. Huh, this goes really far down. At the end, you see an enormous door, with no handle. You peek around the room, looking for some sort of puzzle to open it, to no avail. You’re getting a bit desperate at this point, so using your whole body weight, you push the door, and it budges just a fraction.    
  
Okay, just a really heavy door, then. No puzzles. You prop your shoulder on the door, and push forward as hard as you can with your legs. It barely moves, however it leaves a crack  _ just  _ wide enough to slip through. Doing so, you’re suddenly hit with absolutely freezing temperature and.. Snow?? There’s snow. Underground. What the actual hell?    
  
You wrap your arms around yourself and march forward through the forest. It's like a winter wonderland, fat snowflakes falling down gently and perfect powder snow already on the ground. Were you not currently in a mountain, you would have been ecstatic to play in it. Right now, you’re on a mission.    
  
With no idea where you’re going, or why there’s freakin  _ snow  _ coming from nowhere, you keep moving. You cross a bridge with a giant fence, a few wooden stations that don’t look to be ancient, and a few ice based puzzles. You get through them relatively quickly, and eventually reach a giant sign that says “Welcome to Snowdin”. This is absolutely recent, the buildings look to be powered and no more than ten years old.    
  
“What the hell did I stumble upon” you mumble to yourself.    
“Hello?? Is anyone there?”    
The echo of your call can be heard easily, with no response.   
  
_______________   
  
“...there?”    
  
G hears an echo as he stumbles out of Grillby’s. What the hell?    
  
“...’lo?” His voice has a slur to it, due to his drunken state. He hears a gasp, then quick footsteps. His panic is rising, but so is his excitement. Who the hell is there? He hasn’t seen another soul in probably years. It seems like years at least. Before he can clearly see who is there, a high pitched scream fills the cavern.    
  
“Oh god! What.. what are you?? What is going on!”    
Okay, must be a human then. G’s vision isn’t great right now, everything is hard to concentrate on. Alright, time to sober up then. Eugh. He  _ just  _ got drunk enough to forget his woes. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out a monster candy. These things sober him up fairly quickly. He pops it into his mouth and waits a moment for it to take effect. Once it starts working, he can see a bit easier and glances up at whoever called out. It’s a human woman, shaking, whether it be from fear or cold he doesn’t know, and looking at him with panicked eyes. He lifts his hands in a placating gesture and she squeaks.    
  
“hey lady it's alright, everything is fine. ‘m not gonna bite ya.”    
  
The woman takes a deep breath    
  
“What are you? W-what is this place?”    
  
G chuckles and shakes his head.    
  
“welcome to the underground! im G, a skeleton monster. nice to meet ya’”    
  
A tilt of her head.    
  
“A… skeleton monster?”    
  
He nods and shoves his hands into his jacket pockets. “yup. monsters are made of magic, and come in all kinds of shapes. me, im shaped like a skeleton.”    
  
The woman shakes her head.    
“I must be dreaming. I have to be dreaming, I hit my head and I’m in a coma, and I’m dreaming.”    
  
G sighs, “sorry lady, this is all real. us monsters have been locked up in this mountain for thousands’a years. lemme show ya.”    
  
He pulls her into a friendly encounter, hoping to show her the ropes of interacting. He’s both relieved and excited to finally have someone to talk to, but he also feels bad that she’ll be stuck down here with him. He’ll have to explain the barrier to her soon.   
  
His mouth opens to begin explaining to her about her soul, which is bright green, but before he can, her eyes roll into the back of her head, and she passes out.   
  
_______________________________________   
  
You, once again, wake up in an unfamiliar place. Blearily, you open your eyes. You’re on someone’s couch, and you take in the room. A large painting of a bone is on the wall, a kitchen behind your head, and some stairs leading up to a couple rooms. You don’t recognize the place, but sigh in relief. Must be one of your acquaintance's houses, you definitely drank too much. A pounding headache makes itself noticed, and you groan. Leaning up, you decide to wander into the kitchen for some pain meds and water.    
  
However, you immediately stop and all color drains from your face. The.. skeleton monster, is standing there, staring into the fridge. So it wasn’t a dream after all. Slowly, you sink to the floor. This is absolutely unbelievable, monsters?? Magic?? Magic doesn’t exist! Well, you had thought the same about living, breathing, talking skeletons so.. Yeah.    
  
Gathering your wits about you, you finally glance up. The skeleton.. G, has noticed your presence and is approaching you like one would a skittish animal. You sigh, and place your face in your hands.    
  
“Can you explain what’s going on here? Please?”    
  
He lets out a breath of air, sounding relieved.    
  
“well, first off, yer in my house. ya passed out when i pulled you into an encounter so i took ya somewhere safe. this is the underground, where monsters were trapped thousands of years ago.”    
  
You nod. “Okay. Alright. A couple of questions. Trapped how? Couldn’t you just dig your way out? And what’s an encounter?”    
  
Finally, you lift your face from your hands and look up at him. He looks nervous.    
  
“well, they forced us down here and created a magic barrier that allows things to come in, but not go out. we tried diggin’, the barrier completely encompasses the mountain. an encounter is a way of communicating, used by monsters because a lot of monsters couldn’t use a spoken language.”    
  
A barrier, huh? You keep that thought in the back of your mind, you’ll ask in a minute.   
  
“Some monsters can’t talk?”    
  
He nods.    
  
“yeah, moldsmals cant for example. or. couldnt, rather.”    
  
Your head tilts at that.    
  
“Couldn’t? Wait, speaking of, why are you the only.. monster, i've seen?”    
  
You watch as his face falls, his grin turning into a grimace.    
  
“... theyre gone. all of them.”    
  
Covering your mouth with your hands in shock, you immediately feel bad for asking.    
  
“Oh, oh my god I am so sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”    
  
He shakes his head.   
  
“nah, s’lright. ya didnt know.”   
  
There’s an awkward silence for a few minutes. Finally, you bring up the topic   
  
“Okay so. There’s a barrier you said?”    
  
Another nod from him.    
  
“And you’re sure we can’t get through?”   
  
He chuckles at this.    
  
“yeah. monsters tried for thousands’a years to get past it. break it, bypass it, nothin’ works.”   
  
G purposely leaves out the part about human souls. You didn’t need to know that, not like it matters anymore.    
  
“..Can you take me to see it?”    
  
He thinks for a moment. There’s no harm in showing you.    
  
“...yeah, sure kid.”   
  
You smile in thanks, and he holds out his hand.    
  
“c’mon, i know a shortcut.”    
  
Confusion is obvious on your face, but he seems nice enough. You take his hand gently, and your world is flipped upside down for a moment. You feel everything and nothing all at once, the whole world is before your eyes and..    
  
Suddenly you’re standing in reality again, a bright white light coming from a semi-clear wall in front of you. The light distracts you from the fact that you were in a livingroom, and now somewhere completely different without moving. The air is staticky with power, you can feel it permeating around you. It’s like nothing that you’ve ever felt before, and you find yourself moving forwards without thinking, letting go of his hand. He is silent as you take it in. Your hand slowly comes up to touch the odd, glowing glass-like barrier. You’re hit with a sudden dread.    
  
“No..”   
  
Hand forming a fist, you start to tap it gently on the barrier.    
  
“No no no no..”    
  
Suddenly, you seem to lose all sense of self control and beat both fists on it.    
  
“No! This can’t be it, Trixie needs me! She’s so old, she doesn’t know anyone else! No, no please, come on there’s gotta be a way around…”    
  
You hear G call out for you as you start racing down the side of the barrier. Panic starts to set in, you were never good at being contained. You reach where the edge hits rock, and start digging with your fingers. No good, the barrier exists within the rock. You head back the other way, but before you can, you feel hands on your arms.    
  
“c’mon, its not worth it. its impossible, im sorry.”    
  
Without you realizing, tears have started pouring down your face. Were there a breeze, your tear tracks would be drying and your face cool. But there’s no breeze, there’s no wind down here. There’s walls all around you, you’re trapped. You can’t get out. You… You can’t be here right now.    
  
“I.. I want to go somewhere else… please..” The last word comes out as a desperate whisper.    
  
That feeling of existence yet non existence happens again, and before you can contemplate on it, you’re suddenly  _ very  _ warm. You belatedly realize your eyes are closed, and you open them to see a grimacing G, and a large…  _ something _ in the background, surrounded by magma.    
  
You spend an unknown amount of time just, sitting there. Not really thinking, or talking, or doing anything. Is this what being in shock feels like? Well, whatever it is, it sucks. Your head is sitting in your hands, again, and you have no idea what to do with yourself. You just can’t come to terms with it. Suddenly though, you’re hit with a thought.    
  
G is trapped here, and has been, for a long time. He said all of the other monsters are gone. For how long has he been alone? Glancing over at him, you see him leaning over the railing, staring at the massive machine in the distance, with a lit smoke in his hand.    
  
“Hey.. G?”    
  
His eyelight flicks over to you and his.. eye brow bones, you suppose, lift in a silent question.    
  
“How long have monsters been trapped down here?”    
  
He looks away.    
  
“thousandsa’ years, if im remembering right.”    
  
“And.. how long have you.. Been alone?”    
  
His forehead scrunches as he thinks.    
  
“id say about two years or so? give or take.”    
  
A gasp escapes you and your eyes widen. Two years?? Completely alone?? God, that sounds like absolute hell. You couldn’t even imagine.. He must be so lonely. And here you are panicked and you’ve only been trapped a few hours. You feel insensitive.    
  
“Oh god I am so sorry.. I just, damn dude..”    
  
G lets out a small, miserable sounding laugh and smiles, turning to you fully.    
  
“what were you expecting kid?” He takes a drag out of the cigarette and blows the smoke from his.. Nose hole?    
  
“told ya, all the other monsters are gone. s’just me now. and well, i guess you now too.”    
  
He turns back to lean over the railings again, and you join him. Glancing down at the magma below you, you find yourself wanting a distraction. So you start up another line of questions.    
  
“What all was tried so far, to get past the barrier?”    
  
Some air escapes his nose as he thinks. Well, he wasn’t going to tell you about the souls but, what the hell.   
  
“we had a position specifically for figuring out how to get past it. the royal scientist. i.. he tried everything he could think of. did some.. not so great things to try and get through it. from what he discovered, the only thing that can break it is the same thing that made it. theoretically, seven powerful mages, or the power from seven human souls.”   
  
Human.. Souls? That has to be metaphorical.   
  
“What do you mean by souls?”    
  
He makes a low hmm noise.    
  
“ah, i forget humanity may be out of touch with their souls since monsters have been out of the picture. every sentient being has a soul, humans, monsters, and certain sea creatures as well. the soul is your very being, the culmination of all that makes you you.”    
  
“... so wait. Souls are actually real? Physical?”    
  
Nodding, he states “in a sense. they are entirely magical in nature, for regular non mage humans, its the only magic they possess. i am not sure how much you remember from before you passed out, the green heart shape in front of you was your soul. each color for humans represents their main trait, yours is kindness.”    
  
You blanche at the fact, that glowing green  _ thing _ from earlier was.. You?? This is so much to take in at once. This morning if someone had told you that you had a magical cartoon heart in your chest, and that it’s your  _ soul _ , you would have inwardly laughed and thought them to be joking. But now.. You basically have to believe it. Hell, there’s a walking, talking, sentient skeleton in front of you.    
  
All of this new information is making you rethink everything you’ve ever known. All of the magic and fairy tales in kids books could be based on real things from the past. Your whole life has been turned on its head, all of this new, helpful information, and you’re stuck under a mountain and can’t share it with the world. You sigh.    
  
You belatedly realize you haven’t even given him your name. You turn your head to face him. “I haven’t even introduced myself, have I?” You smile, and give him your name. He chuckles, “no need, i got your name from the encounter.”    
  
Tilting your head, you decide not to question that right now. You’ve got plenty of time to question him.   
  
“Well. What do we do now?”    
  
He throws his used up cigarette into the magma below.    
  
“i gotta show you how to handle the glitches.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!  
> G has both some of Sans and Gasters speaking habits, so sometimes you'll see slurry speech, and other times you'll see very eloquent paragraphs. That is on purpose :P  
> Thanks for reading, stick around for more!


End file.
